Educational Establishments Disc seeding the outfield
“There’s one area of recently reclaimed land that needs some work doing to it to bring it back to respectability; this is a project for our February half term.” “We have worked with several agencies during initial stages of planning applications, to ensure that all the relevant requirements were met; the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Port of London Authority being the most prominent, whilst we utilise a company called Bio-Diversity by Design, who help coordinate our environmental issues.”
“Rainwater harvesting is part of the
next phase of the building work. This has just started and we are now looking at options to best utilise this water on the
sports pitches, and what sort of infrastructure we would need to facilitate this.” “The seasons are shifting without a doubt,” claims Neil. “Spring is starting later, resulting in slower germination during the early part of our cricket season, which frustrates the Head of Cricket. Like most schools, we start our summer term immediately after the Easter holiday, regardless of when this may fall, so trying to time overseeding with good growing weather is not always that easy, and often leads to frustrated cricket coaches complaining of bumpy outfields!” “We now do our outfield ‘end of
season’ work once the school has finished
keep the pitches dry, but also to slow down the drying of them, particularly in hot weather.
End of Season Renovations Topdressing the square
- Squares are fertilised with Evolution micro 14:4:8 from Headland in the spring, and then with a 6:9:6 type winter feed (if they need it) during the playing season. I have found this is enough to give the grass that little boost when needed, without the risk of lush growth in the summer. I am conscious that, because our season is so short (12 weeks), the quantities of fertiliser we apply are probably too low. This is something we need to look at in terms of timing of feeds and their respective NPK ratios, to coincide with the turf requirements.
- Watering and covering of pitches is done as and when required. We are fortunate to have two sets of roll on covers, and a few flat sheets, not only to
- The squares are shaved down using our Amazone Groundkeeper. For the first time this year, to look at ways of speeding up the scarification process, we have fitted scarifier wings to this machine to be able to use it as a scarifier. Whilst we have a Graden, the time it takes to not only scarify, but then clean-up is restrictive, with 3 squares and a 11 lane net area to do. If, next year, the surfaces are not as they should, then we will be looking at a tractor mounted Graden, and use the Amazone to clean up.
- Squares are watered, then solid tined.
- Squares then watered again until the surface can take our BLEC dimple seeder. We then overseeded each square with between 1.5-2 x 20Kg bags of Barenbrug Bar Extreme; if we need to add more to fill in any low density areas, then we will do this.
- Ends are levelled off using weasels and a lute, and seed added to these areas.
- The whole square is then topdressed via our Pro Pass Spin topdresser and dragmatted into the surface. We have always used GOSTD 125 from Surrey Loams Ltd as the consistency and quality
“A lot of our current sports staff have played professional cricket and rugby, so it is not unreasonable for them to expect the surfaces to be good”
for the summer, when we have warmer soil temperatures, there is water available, and the fields are not so intensively used, plus, of course, the seven or eight week break allows plenty of time for the new grass to establish. Mind you, this has a cost implication as we still overseed at Easter, but this is very much a hope and pray exercise as I cannot influence the process.” “Summers are very hit and miss and, with such a short but very intense cricket season - approximately fifty games in twelve weeks - so it is vital that we get a half decent summer.” Outside the day-to-day maintenance of the facilities, Neil and his team have been involved in a number of projects.
of the product is second to none.
- We then start irrigating to encourage rapid germination, any additional seeding or re-levelling work will take place as and when needed.
Close Season
General maintenance consists of: - Solid spiking every 3 weeks
- Mowing at 15mm with a rotary mower until the second leaf stage, then we look to use our Jacobsen 26” mower, this is very light (in comparison to a Ransomes 24”) and it helps settle down the surface and also conditions the grass to being mown with a cylinder mower. I am not a big fan of rotary mowers on squares, a) due to the indentation the wheels can leave, and b) the blade has to be razor sharp to ensure a clean cut.
- We will apply a 6:9:6 or equivalent and supplement this with some amino.
- We will spray fungicides if absolutely necessary, but we rarely have the need to. Air movement is good, and we aim to keep the squares mown that tad lower to reduce moisture build up at the base of the plant. We would need a severe outbreak of disease at a critical time to consider spraying.
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014 PC 87
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